Dan's Plan

Fish in newspaper courtesy of Girl Interrupted Eating via flickr

There have been a number of interesting stories about in food in the news recently – here is brief summary of three stories that might be of interest to you.

1. Grocery stores are hiring private companies to score or rate the nutritional value of the products on their shelves. Ok, so let’s do a little thought experiment. What happens if the rating company identifies all the junk food as junk food? Will this be news to people? Will customers respond by purchasing less? If so, will the grocery stores retain the ratings that discourage those sales? There are also a whole other set of questions related to who gets to say what is good for you and what is not (whole grains, anyone?). Will ratings and recommendations be based on sound scientific evidence? We’re not so sure. In the end, however (and not surprisingly), we find ourselves agreeing with Marion Nestle who is quoted in the article linked above as saying, “I think their purpose is to sell food products,” Nestle said. “If you want to encourage people to eat healthy, you want to encourage them not to eat food products. You want them to eat real food.” Amen sister.

2. Twinkie maker Hostess files for bankruptcy. According this article in the WSJ, sales of Twinkies have declined while overall bakery-snacks sales have been about flat. Nearly 36 million packages of Twinkies were sold in the year ended Dec. 25, down almost 2% from a year earlier. Now, I don’t like kicking people when they’re down and I hate to see people potentially lose jobs, but I can’t really think of anything that Hostess makes that is actually good for you to eat. A simple clue, when you can buy 10 to 12 cakes for $1 to 2.

3. A new study reports that statins can raise the risk of diabetes in postmenopausal women. The Huffington Post reports that results from a large government study that tracked the health of 153,000 postmenopausal women for many years showed that almost 10 percent of the statin (Lipitor, Crestor, etc.) users developed diabetes, whereas only 6.4 percent of women who hadn’t used statins developed diabetes. Now, this doesn’t mean that everyone on statins should stop taking the medications, but it should make one think about other, perhaps less risky ways, to lower one’s cholesterol. The findings of this study were published in the Archives of Internal Medicine and the abstract can be found here.

Nexium courtesy of Rennett Stowe via flickr

A scientist should always be careful not to place to much stock in the result of an N=1 (there is only one subject) study or case report. If something works for one person, it does not mean that that thing will work for many other people. Nonetheless, case reports are interesting and can lead to larger, more generalizable studies. Moreover, if you happen to be the positive result in an N=1 study, your experience could be the most meaningful outcome that matters to you.

Over the weekend I received an email from a friend who had recently tried switching to a paleo diet. With her permission, I post her email below.

Subject: thank you!!!!!!!!!…

“I owe you a big thank you for suggesting Paleo, the longer I am on it the better I feel. I forgot what it is like to be healthy! I have been off of my Prilosec for 6 weeks now! (first time in 7 or 8 years with no acid reflux problems, despite the higher fat diet)! And the dark circles under my eyes which have always driven me crazy are starting to look better (I have done a little more reading, and they can be caused by grain allergies as well, who knew!) My sister is starting it tomorrow.”

Wow. I asked if I could share this experience with the Dan’s Plan community and she wrote back:

“for people with acid reflux, I noticed that the first 2 weeks, my reflux was actually a little bit worse than normal. I had always tried to be a healthy eater, and I think eating more fat and red meat than ever before initially caused my problems to spike (trying to stay eating low fat while also eating low carb was just making me too hungry). But once my body adjusted to everything, I noticed I have no problems at all any more (which is huge!). But I couldn’t go off my prilosec completely until about 6 weeks in.  So I would say if you are trying to promote it for acid reflux suffers warn them that it may initially get slightly worse before it gets better. And I would recommend a 6 week or 2 month trial rather than 30 days.
 
But yeah it is really frustrating, because any time I told my doctors I had acid reflux they told me to eat less fat and less red meat. I told them I had almost eliminated fried foods, and only eat red meat about once a week, but every doctor I talked to just insisted that I must not be eating as low fat a diet as I claimed.  Then they just wanted to up my reflux meds, which isn’t great for you long term. Now I eat all the red meat I want and I have never felt better. I was hoping that the Paleo would help my IBS (which it has), but I didn’t expect this much progress on my acid reflux.”

This is actually the second case in which someone I know who has had serious problems with acid reflux has solved those problems by eating paleo or eliminating gluten from their diet. And guess what? There is some real, published science out there to support this (see here and here for abstracts). So “patients,” listen up! You might be able to control your acid reflux with diet instead of meds. Researchers, listen up too! There might be opportunities to conduct some interesting clinical trials in this area.

IU vs Michigan courtesy of LC via iphone

Ok, here is a question for the class - do you find it easier to: A) stay up later than usual or B) wake up earlier than usual? Without a show of hands, I would guess that most people would find it easier to stay up later than to wake up earlier. Our biological clocks or rhythms tend to shift forward (i.e., later) rather than backward (i.e., earlier).

Last night we saw IU beat Michigan in a close and exciting game that put us back at home well past our usual bedtime. When faced with the fact that you’ve stayed up later than usual (e.g., on a Friday or Saturday night), what do you do when it’s time to set the alarm clock? Do you keep your regular wake-up time or do your change the alarm and sleep in?

We are often told to get a fixed number (6-8?) of hours of sleep each night, but there might be reasons to forego some sleep in order stay on track and build “sleep pressure.” What is sleep pressure, you ask?

Sleep pressure is a term that experts in sleep medicine use to refer to the tendency or likelihood to fall asleep. It’s not really a pressure in the scientific sense, but the general idea that the likelihood of falling asleep (pressure) builds with the time spent awake and is diminished with sleep. The biological mechanism underlying “sleep pressure” is thought to be related to adenosine signaling. Adenosine levels increase during wakefulness and decrease during sleep. The wakefulness-promoting effects of caffeine occur because caffeine blocks adenosine receptors.

So, when you stay up late, you have likely built up extra adenosine and sleep pressure (and its easy to fall asleep). Sleeping in helps diminish that sleep pressure, but you will be awake for fewer hours the following day (the day you slept in). This might make it more difficult to fall asleep on the following night because you build less sleep pressure while awake (the Sunday night insomnia effect). In contrast, if you forsake sleeping in, you will likely be more tired on that day (less sleep pressure was relieved during sleep), but you will likely build more sleep pressure that day, making it easier to get back on track and get to sleep the following night (not news: some caffeine in the morning can help temporarily reverse the effects of adenosine/excess sleep pressure).

So, consider resisting the urge to sleep in this weekend. It might help improve your ability to get to sleep on a regular basis.